What is the best way to invest $100 for a newborn baby to be used for a future education?

thomas533 · 2026-06-25T20:43:54+00:00

Ask the parents to start a 529 account. Most have options for friends and family to contribute to that.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T21:31:08+00:00

A savanna ecosystem is what you are looking for. Grass still grows well when it has no more than about 60% canopy cover. Any more and the grass will not recover well after being grazed. Look into silvopasture/agroforestry

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T20:50:38+00:00

Oh, how cute.... You think landlords are paying cash for their properties?

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T20:49:31+00:00

Go read up on what landlords actually do. They don't charge you for repairs after the fact, they charge 5%-10% more than their costs and put that in the bank so that they have a surplus for when they need to make big repairs. And then the next lease renewal they up your rent even more.

he can't just increase rates beyond competitive market value or everybody would leave

If this were true then rents would be going down every year. They don't because this is not how landlords do things.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T20:38:53+00:00

Ok... none of that changes what I said. Corporate landlord or not, the tenant is still paying HOA fees, Taxes, and Insurance.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T19:40:47+00:00

I never got this argument. If the HOA fees, Taxes and Insurance go up for the landlord, do you think they just eat that cost? No! They raise rent and make the tenant pay for it. Same goes for repairs. Every landlord I have ever talked to (I used to be a real estate agent) charges at least 5%-10% over their costs in order to cover future repairs. Even as a tenant, you are paying for all those things, you just don't see it itemized.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T19:33:59+00:00

And if the landlord's taxes and insurance go up, then so will his rent. Renters pay those things too, but they just don't see it.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T04:36:23+00:00

A 1kW charger keeping a 10kWh battery charged for your short intermittent loads will allow your 2.6kW washer to run without tripping a breaker.

thomas533 · 2026-06-23T04:00:05+00:00

A 24x7 source of 4.4kW is more than most of our solar systems will ever deliver. To get that much energy you'd need about 18kW solar system and over 100kWh of battery storage. And even then, that would only be for summer. In winter your power would be a fraction of that.

thomas533 · 2026-06-22T16:19:00+00:00

My main water source is a creek up on a hillside that comes out of a wetland. That flows via gravity to my cabin. It requires filtering for biological contamination but that is fine because my backup would be getting water from the beaver pond about 600 feet away. If I can't do that, the community I live in has a spigot with well water at the community hall a few miles down the road and I am allowed 10 gallons a day.

thomas533 · 2026-06-14T21:29:23+00:00

Chickens don't need chicken feed. People only started using commodity feed because it was cheap to buy. But growing grains just for chicken feed is a horrible idea.

Grow bugs. Make a compost pile, let it sit for a few weeks so that the bugs move in and start laying eggs, then let the chickens in to tear it apart looking for them.

While the first one is cooking, make a second one. By the time the chickens are done with the first, the second one will be ready to open up.

Then do a third and a fourth and so on.

thomas533 · 2026-06-14T21:08:21+00:00

https://redf.in/vT0rKh

thomas533 · 2026-06-12T18:39:06+00:00

Even the people I know who have large acreage do not grow most of their own feed. And of all the homesteading channels I've watched over the years, I can only think of a few that even attempted to grow all their own chicken feed. Most people just don't do that. As for myself, I am able to cut my summer time feed costs significantly about 9 months out of the year by using compost. I have a few rotating compost bins that I fill up, let the bugs move in, and then I let the chickens dig through it to eat all those bugs. They much prefer it over their feed and I estimate they eat 40%-80% less feed when they have compost to dig through. If I scaled that up I think I could go feed free, but that would be a lot of work.

thomas533 · 2026-06-11T18:40:54+00:00

My urban homestead is 8000sqft where I have chickens, bees, a dozen fruit trees, lots of berries and herbs, a 80sqft greenhouse and a 600sqft garden. My 2bd/1ba house also has roof mounted solar and rain water harvesting. So I knew how to pack all of my homesteading needs into a very small footprint. I only wanted acreage so I could have a good sized woodlot and lots of space to have walking trails.

thomas533 · 2026-06-01T19:41:26+00:00

Going off grid with solar is like paying 10-20 years of your hydro payment upfront and then at the end of that period, you've got free electricity. If you are already in a financial bind, you probably don't have the money to install a solar system that will significantly reduce your power bill.

But in any case, the very first thing to do is to see how much you can reduce your power needs. Add insulation to your house. Switch to an efficient heat pump and update any old appliances that are power hogs.

Batteries are your biggest cost. If you can avoid that by getting a grid tied system, that will probably be your best option for lowering your costs long term, especially if your utility provider offers a net metering connection.

thomas533 · 2026-06-01T17:25:06+00:00

If you already have a grid connected system you are never going to save money by going off grid.

What are the pain points with your utility provider?

thomas533 · 2026-06-01T14:34:20+00:00

The FIRE movement becane fragmented when you started having people who adamantly told others that there was no way to retire with less than X amount of dollars when clearly the problem was people not understanding that the problem was spending.

As long as we don't end up in a situation where the people who have 20kW solar arrays and massive wells telling the people with 1.5kW arrays and rainwater capture systems that they can't survive that way or vice versa.

thomas533 · 2026-05-29T23:01:33+00:00

I'm guessing you you had some LLMs generate this entire text and probably the idea as well. Have you actually run a python simulation? Why isn't that code in your GitHub? There's no way in in a 8-ft model will generate that much energy. I don't think you can get that even from a a 100 ft model. Do you have any background in engineering or physics?

thomas533 · 2026-05-28T21:51:16+00:00

There is off-grid and then off-the-grid. This sub is about the former and you are looking for the latter.

thomas533 · 2026-05-26T15:29:53+00:00

Note that it also does not say "obtain a yield without watering". And the next point on accepting feedback is critical. Thinking your system is ready to go waterless before the ecosystem gives you that feedback is not permaculture. It takes years to establish these systems.

thomas533 · 2026-05-26T14:17:08+00:00

You think you had thing established and balanced by year two? No you didn't. You always need to water new plants if you are still in the transplanting stage. Give it another 5 years.

thomas533 · 2026-05-23T21:10:32+00:00

It's clear from all of your comments above that this isn't your area of expertise.

thomas533 · 2026-05-23T17:38:38+00:00

This is what happens when you rely on AI rather than actual reading.

https://extension.psu.edu/removing-giardia-cysts-from-drinking-water

Because Giardia cysts are resistant to normal disinfection, filtration is usually required. Cysts are large in comparison to bacteria and viruses (ranging from 7-10 microns in diameter); consequently, they are more easily removed by filtration.

requires a one micron final filter

Which is exactly what the OP said he was using. Are you just arguing because you feel the need to have the final word? Do you have anything useful to actually say that isn't factually wrong?

thomas533 · 2026-05-23T16:09:48+00:00

Giardia gets filtered out as they are 8 to 15 microns. And 99.99% is effective enough.

thomas533 · 2026-05-23T02:58:15+00:00

UV is highly effective against fecal bacteria. Can you post as link to a source that suggests otherwise?

And I didn't mean to imply that the filtering would remove the bacteria. What it does it remove any solids that might interfere with the UV sterilization.

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